Heating in single-electron pumps driven by surface acoustic waves

We use a practical thermometer based on the resistance of the two-dimensional electron gas to characterize single-electron devices driven by surface acoustic waves. At the typical microwave powers (similar to 10 dBm) required to observe the quantization of the acoustoelectric current in such structures, the electron-gas temperature increases from our base 1.8 K to 5-6 K. The power deposited by the surface acoustic wave itself can be clearly resolved. However, it is several times smaller than the overall rf heating, which occurs over a frequency range of few gigahertz. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.